neoSearch 2.80

A simple and straightforward search tool

Mike Williams January 19, 2017

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neoSearch is a desktop search tool for Windows which promises super-speedy performance. "Advanced algorithms make indexing a breeze", writes the author, claiming that "searching happens in the blink of an eye".

The reality was a little different, at least on our test PC, especially with indexing. You can launch this manually, which is useful enough (there's no background component tying up resources), but even though the program claimed to only be indexing a part of our drive, it still took a very long time to complete.

The search experience was a little better. Simply type a part of the file name (neoSearch can only look for file and folder names, not content) and the top six matches appear immediately. We would prefer to see all the matches, but if you keep typing then the file you need should appear in the list eventually.

You can also use wildcards in your search. The program can index files on network shares (although we would expect that to take even longer). And you can launch it at any time by pressing Win+S, conveniently (so the regular Windows Search remains available just as before).

There are problems here, then, but neoSearch isn't entirely unappealing: it looks good, once your drive is indexed then searching is speedy, and the approach of displaying only the first few matches does at least keep things simple. If you need a faster way to find files by name then it just might be worth a try.

Verdict

Indexing takes too long, but once this is complete neoSearch proves a speedy search tool